MyM Magazine 2016: Films, TV, Games & Anime To Look Out For

2016 is here! Blimey, and 2015 only feels like yesterday already (erm…). So what TV, films, anime and games have we got to look forward to? Handily, the team over at Buzz’s sister magazine, MyM, have already given this some thought in the latest issue (more info on that issue here). Here’s what they came up with, with a few extras we’ve thrown in…

NEW TV SHOWS

￼The X-Files

US launch: 24 JanuaryUK launch: Channel 5, TBC

Even if you weren’t around for the original phenomenon, which filled our TV screens with gore, aliens and conspiracies from 1993 to 2002 – much to the amazement of a public who’d never seen anything like it before – there’s no reason not to look forward to this revival series. Of course, it won’t be as ground-breaking, shocking and influential as it used to be – there’s barely a sci-fi show on telly today that wasn’t influenced by Chris Carter’s staggering FBI drama – but Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Ander- son) are icons, dammit, so they need to be watched. Jayne Nelson

DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow

US launch: 21 JanuaryUK launch: Sky 1, February

Has there ever been a better time to be a fan of superheroes? DC may have initially lagged behind Marvel, but it’s now going after audiences with a vengeance. Crossovers have been stacking up for Arrow and The Flash but it’s Legends Of Tomorrow where the biggest collision of superheroes is set to take place. Combining existing heroes and villains from the Arrowverse, it’ll also introduce new faces – including time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter (Doctor Who’s Arthur Darvill). Having seen the future, it’s Hunter who must create a team capable of stopping the immortal threat of Vandal Savage (Casper Crump) to save the planet and all of time itself. Octavia Wolton ￼￼

Westworld

US launch: HBO, tbcUK launch: Sky Atlantic, tbc

Did Michael Crichton have a particularly awful experience at a theme park as a child? If it’s not dinosaurs breaking out and getting snack-happy with the visitors in his novels, it’s androids getting their wiring in a twist and butchering thrill seekers. Still, if little Mikey hadn’t been put through the ringer we’d have missed out on Yul Brynner’s incredibly charismatic turn in the 1973 movie, as a near-silent robot gunslinger who simply will not stop (sound familiar?). Ed Harris wears the cowboy hat in this TV update, which also boasts Evan Rachel Wood, James Marsden, Thandie Newton and Anthony Hopkins among its cast. Jonathan Nolan (the Dark Knight trilogy scripter and creator of Person Of Interest) is one of the big cheeses behind the scenes we expect great things. Chessington World of Adventures this ain’t! Matt Chapman￼￼￼￼￼￼

Preacher

US launch: May 2016UK launch: Tbc

Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s hilarious, violent and quite literally blasphemous comic-book series has taken over a decade to reach the screen. In the wake of discarded movie versions and a stillborn HBO adaptation, US cable channel AMC is aiming squarely for the Walking Dead audience with its Seth Rogen-produced series, though Preacher is a very different proposition: Arseface anyone? Still, Ennis professes himself “delighted” with what he’s seen so far, the teaser trailer is promising, and the casting of Dominic Cooper in the title role, with Agents of SHIELD’s Ruth Negga as Tulip and Joe Gilgun as the Irish vampire Cassidy, looks spot on. Adam Newell

Beowulf: Return To The Shieldlands

UK launch: 3 January

ITV has suddenly gone fantasy crazy, hasn’t it? Just as the ripping yarn that was Jekyll & Hyde season one leaves our screen, ITV fills the Sunday night gap with a lavish and monster-packed adaptation of an Old English epic poem over 1,000 years old (so, well out of copyright, then). The 13-part Beowulf is a more family-friendly Game Of Thrones, starring Kieran Bew as the monster-slaying Beowulf, Lolita Chakrabarti as Lila, Elliot Cowan (Sinbad, Da Vinci’s Demons, The Frankenstein Chronicles) as Abrican, Laura Donnelly as Elvina and Gísli Örn Garðarsson as Breca. ITV describes it as a series about courage, greed, betrayal, revenge, loyalty, power, man versus wilderness and, of course love. It explores the notion of good and evil, heroes and villains. However, beyond these wider political undercurrents and inner personal turmoils are the excitement, danger and sense of adventure that any great Western has. Epic fights, thrilling chases, raids, celebrations and battles are an essential part of the promise.

Also look out for:

• Stan Lee’s Lucky Man (Sky 1, January) – James Nesbitt is a gambler who’s given the power to control luck, and soon wishes he wasn’t. (More info here)

• Outcast (Fox UK, Spring) – New show from The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. This one’s about possession and it looks very intense. (More info here)

• Class (BBC Three, tbc) – The YA Doctor Who spin-off. We know little about it yet, but it’s being written by Patrick Ness who has written some of the finest YA novels of the past decade, so we’re definitely excited.